September 9, 2005

New Orleans Style Funeral for the Bush Presidency

This Sunday at 3PM, in NYC:

This is a call to musicians who cannot stand another
minute of watching people being left to starve and die
and be shot at by police, without acting to stop it….

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ FUNERAL MARCH
100+ horns (and drums and…) to march in a procession
through the streets of NYC on
Sunday, September 11, gathering at 3pm, in front of
Judson Church, below Washington Square Park (239
Thompson St.)
Call (917) 721-7686

The World Can’t Wait, Drive out the Bush Regime is
calling for this procession in the style and spirit of
the New Orleans jazz funeral marches, led by the
musicians. The vision is a dramatic public manifesto
that people can no longer tolerate this regime that is
committing mass murder down there, whether by
incompetence or design. We demand people be rescued,
that police stop shooting people who are trying to
meet basic needs, and stop demonizing Black people
(people on the ground are now reporting that Black men
have to be off the street by 5 or risk arrest or
worse). We are calling for a massive movement to
politically drive out the illegitimate Bush regime.

Last Sunday, with about 8 hours notice, The World
Can’t Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime pulled together
a jazz funeral march (with musicians, black umbrellas,
coffins, signs) that snaked through Manhattan for
hours and was covered on 6 TV stations that evening.
We parted 2 lanes of Broadway as buses and cars gladly
gave way, many thumbs up. This time, the vision is: A
stunningly large, beautiful and together gathering of
musicians. Horns will blow with sadness, anger and
determination to stop the suffering and death caused
by this regime.

We are acting quickly because we can and must—people
are suffering and dying right now on the streets of
New Orleans and in “superdomes” and gruesome shelters
all over the south. And to be blunt, they need a lot
more than our sympathy and money. Efforts must be
intensified to rescue people and stop treating them as
criminals. And the debate needs to intensify about the
nature of America that was revealed in the wake of
Katrina and about a regime that shows such utter
disregard for peoples’ lives. A regime that does this
must be driven from power. And if we don’t act now,
the tide will shift, and they will get away with
murder.

“How can we be refugees in our home state? My family
has been here since slavery days,” a man from Kenner
said. “And now I’m supposed to be a refugee?” “We’re
not angry. We’re way past angry.”